Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana 

The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (Prime Minister's Crop Insurance Scheme) was launched by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on February 18, 2016. It envisages a uniform premium of only two percent to be paid by farmers for Kharif crops, and 1.5 per cent for Rabi crops. The premium for annual commercial and horticultural crops will be 5 percent. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked for overall integration.

This scheme is dedicated to bring in more than 50% of the farmers under its wing within the next two to three years. Around 25% of the claims will be sent to the farmer’s direct account. Also, the scheme will remain as it is. This means that there will be no cap on coverage. Also there won’t be any cap on the reduction in the insured sum.

This insurance scheme, unlike the previous ones, covers local calamities too, such as landslide, hailstorm, inundation, etc. inundation was not covered by the previous schemes. The government has proposed that there will only be one insurance company for the entire state. Mostly the private as well as the national agricultural insurance companies will be approached to implement it.

Effectively, PMFBV replaced the earlier schemes that were earmarked for farmers. They included The Comprehensive Insurance Scheme (CIS) covered 15 states and 2 union territories; an experimental crop insurance scheme introduced in 1997-98 that covered non-loanee small and marginal farmers growing specified crops in select districts; the Farm Income Insurance Scheme (FIIS) that was formulated during 2003-04 and “National Agricultural Insurance Scheme” (NAIS) or “Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojana” (RKBY), which failed to yield the desired results.